Anime Sols Sets Goal For Creamy Mami Set 2

Earlier today, Anime News Network reported that Anime Sols set the crowd funding goal for the second Creamy Mami boxed set. The second set, which contains episodes 14-26 of the series, will need to earn $18,000 in pledges before polling closes on November 4, 2013. For the first set, Anime Sols took pledges for the first three months. When asked about the shortened funding period, the company stated that they “need the revenue flow,” which led to the shortened schedule.

Despite Anime Sols’s surprising openness about their funding surprising, the sheer reality of it shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The company, which began operations in May, has fully funded a total of two projects:

Black Jack- Closed at $23,340

Creamy Mami- Closed at $22,500

The total gross take from these two titles is $45,840. To put that in perspective, during its first four months of operation, Anime Sols took in $4,200 less than the median household income in 2011. After expenses like royalty payments, bandwidth costs, and employees, not to mention product manufacture, the final take is undoubtedly far lower. On top of this, the company’s seen zero revenues since July, when the two successful drives closed.

With this in mind, it’s not unusual for Anime Sols to try to leverage Creamy Mami. The title which earned its funding, is a proven brand for the company with baked-in supporters. However, the title will face several challenges from the market, as well as its self-imposed two month limit. Historically, multi-volume titles have seen declining returns with each subsequent volume. As each volume grows, the number of customers shrinks, as new customers will opt for early volumes, and new customers tend to drop off at a fairly constant rate between volumes.

It’s still quite early in the campaign, though, and we don’t yet know a number of factors, from the velocity of pledges, to the ability to mobilize previous customers. At the moment, deliverables for the first set still haven’t hit, as it was given a nebulous “about 3 months” with the possibility of delays. And, because of this, we may see some reluctance from customers who feel as if they’re being asked to act upon blind faith for a second time.

Whether the company can muster the funds again is still unknown. And, while the challenges Anime Sols faces are great, they are far from insurmountable. It will be interesting to see how the company fares, as the days pass, and the deadline begins to creep ever closer.